A federal grand jury Friday indicted a former federal employee on charges of wire fraud, personal financial conflict of interest and making a false tax return statement.

Luis Ramirez, 57, of Medford, was accused of trying to defraud the Bureau of Land Management while he served as a contracting officer. In his position, he was responsible for administering contracts, approving work and submitting invoices to pay contractors.

The indictment alleges that Ramirez directed private contractors holding BLM contracts to subcontract work to his son -- some of which was never performed or was duplicative of previous work done, the government claims. In addition, the indictment alleges that Ramirez had the companies issue checks to his son which were reimbursed by BLM under their contracts.

Much of the money was transferred to Ramirez's personal account, the indictment alleges. The tax charge stems from accusations that he lied about the truth of his tax return because he failed to report $166,000 in income.